CONGRATS & BIG BROWN STAR AT FASIG TIPTON

Vinery stallions Congrats and Big Brown were the most popular sires among Australian shuttlers at this week’s Fasig-Tipton July Sale in Kentucky.

Trade was positive for the first yearling sale of the season in the USA. “There’s energy and enthusiasm for the thoroughbred business and that’s an encouraging sign,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning jnr said on Monday evening. “We’re very pleased with the results and it bodes well for all the yearling sales in North America in 2013.”

A Congrats filly from It’s True Love (Yes It’s True) was purchased by Shortleaf Stable for $130,000. The dam was a Listed winner of the Winter Melody Stakes in Delaware.

Congrats (A P Indy) has sired 130 winners of 386 races in his first three crops at a remarkable 73% strike-rate. USA Champion Turbulent Descent topped his freshman season, Saratoga G1 winner Emma’s Encore highlighted the second and Coastal Sunrise heads a quartet of Stakes performers so far from his third crop (remarkable considering his third crop had only 29 live foals – Congrats has since covered books of over 200).

Congrats will stand for a $22,000 (inc gst) fee at Vinery this year and his first Australian yearlings will sell at the 2014 majors.

Boom sire Big Brown is firing on several fronts with his first crop.

The Vinery shuttler sired his third stakes winner when Shades Of Sugar claimed the LR Niagara Stakes in New York on July 4 and the next black-type could arrive as early as this Saturday when his Ballydoyle colt Darwin contests the G3 The Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh.

There have been 38 winners from his initial crop and New York based colt Tiger Bourbon kick-started the second with a half-length victory in a field of first-starters at Belmont Park last Friday.

His yearling colt out of Our Josephina (Tale of the Cat) made $90,000 to the bid of Breaking Point Farm at the Fasig-Tipton Sale. The dam was a stakes winner at Mountaineer Park.

Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby – Preakness Stakes double in 2008 and he will stand also stand for a $22,000 (inc gst) fee at Vinery this year.

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Eagle Way (#MoreThanReady - Wedgetail Eagle @SegenhoeGroup) won the Gr.2 HK Jockey Club Cup in track record time over the weekend. More proof that his sire is a global phenomenon that just keeps delivering.

It’s always great to be adding more Group 1 plaques to the Wall of Fame at #InglisRiverside. These 4 Inglis grads all secured their first G1 wins during the Spring carnival. Congrats to all involved, and welcome to the Wall of Fame!